title: Impaired verbal comprehension of quantifiers in corticobasal syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) have atrophy in posterior parietal cortex. This region of atrophy has been previously linked with quantifier comprehension difficulty, but previous studies employed visual stimuli, making it difficult to account for potentially confounding visuospatial deficits in CBS patients. The current study evaluated comprehension of generalized quantifiers using strictly verbal materials.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-aphasic CBS patients, a brain-damaged control group (consisting of patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia), and age-matched healthy controls participated in this study. We assessed familiar temporal, spatial, and monetary domains of verbal knowledge comparatively. Judgment accuracy was only evaluated in statements for which patients demonstrated accurate factual knowledge about the target domain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that patients with CBS are significantly impaired in their ability to evaluate quantifiers when compared to healthy seniors and a brain-damaged control group, even in this strictly verbal task. This impairment was seen in the vast majority of individual CBS patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings offer additional evidence of quantifier impairment in CBS patients and emphasize that this impairment cannot be attributed to potential visuo spatial processing impairments in patients with parietal disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, 2 Gibson, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283, USA.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Troiani
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grossman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests